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<title>i'm bleeding out (but you'll bandage me up) by forestdivinity (ForestDivinity)</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27043972">i'm bleeding out (but you'll bandage me up)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestDivinity/pseuds/forestdivinity'>forestdivinity (ForestDivinity)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>One Shots [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Number Five Gets To Rest, Number Five Gets a Break, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Protective Klaus Hargreeves, Sibling Bonding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 19:08:35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,323</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27043972</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForestDivinity/pseuds/forestdivinity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i> Five knows the world. It takes, and it takes, and it never gives back. God knows it’s been stealing from him all his life, all these micro jumps, minor fractures in time and space, he can feel them splitting in him now. Making a mess. </i>
</p>
<p>
  <i>It hurts. He craves something sweet. The sugary familiarity of a sheet cake, all frosting and no substance. A memory of a hug - he doesn’t remember the last time he got one. In all honesty, he’s just fucking tired. Exhausted in a way that makes his entire body heavy, his hands limp. </i>
</p>
<p>-</p>
<p>Five has had a bad time of it lately and now he's stuck in a new timeline with his irate siblings and now idea how to get home. He should fix it, it's his responsibility to make things better.</p>
<p>He gets a nap instead</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Number Five | The Boy &amp; The Hargreeves (Umbrella Academy), The Hargreeves Family</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>One Shots [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/535576</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>210</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i'm bleeding out (but you'll bandage me up)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Five knows the world. It takes, and it takes, and it never gives back. God knows it’s been stealing from him all his life, all these micro jumps, minor fractures in time and space, he can feel them splitting in him now. Making a mess. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It hurts. He craves something sweet. The sugary familiarity of a sheet cake, all frosting and no substance. A memory of a hug - he doesn’t remember the last time he got one. In all honesty, he’s just fucking tired. Exhausted in a way that makes his entire body heavy, his hands limp. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The universe is cruel. It takes his family and then dangles the promise of them back in front of him. A home in exchange for an abusive father - one he can’t help but try to please. Time travel, so long as he stays alone and kills. He’s done so much killing. Sometimes it feels like he’ll never get rid of the blood under his fingernails.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Inside him, something is broken. It pulses out blue light like a gut wound. Feels like a fucking gut wound too, Five would know, he’s had plenty of them. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>What a mess. All he asked for was a break, just for once in his goddamn life. He didn’t mean to get shattered. A cruel irony. Taking without giving back. God, he’s pissed. And tired. Hungry, too.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Hangry? Was that even a word anymore? Had it ever been?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>When he closes his eyes Five sees strands of timelines that have never existed - only they must exist for him to see them, right? He sees black boxes and blue lights, sees screens bigger than a house, sees people talking into devices no bigger than their hands and realises they must be phones. It’s nothing like the world he knows. Any of the worlds he’s known. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He can’t tell if this is all some big hallucination. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Five, what are we going to do- hey, Five?” Allison is speaking, but Five can’t hear her over the crackling in his ears. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Five buddy, you maybe wanna sit down? You’re looking a little unsteady on your feet there.” Hands rest on his shoulders and Five guesses they belong to Klaus. He can’t bring himself to open his eyes to check.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Ngh-“ Truthfully, he intends to say something, but all that comes out of his mouth is a groan.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Shit-“ That’s Diego cursing, Five recognises the timbre of his voice. It’s almost soothing, or it would be if Diego didn’t sound so horrifically worried.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“S’okay-“ Five mutters around the clenching of his teeth. He should open his eyes, let his family know he’s fine - because he is fine. There’s no use in worrying them. At some point between running into the future and coming home, he became the oldest. He has to protect them all now.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Five, you can’t fall asleep, we gotta figure out a plan-“ Diego is talking to him - at him - again, exacerbating that throbbing wound in his gut that has somehow moved to his head. Behind his eyelids reality shatters and rebuilds itself and Five just wants it to fucking stop.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He’s so tired.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh shut up Diego, he can barely keep his eyes open-“ A hissed voice. Allison, it must be Allison, but it’s getting all distorted. Five does his best to focus on the hands on his shoulder. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It’s nice. Grounding. He thinks he understands Klaus a little better now - it’s nice to have a tether when the world seems to be stealing every inch of what you are. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So we’re just gonna hang around while those- those imposters get a chance to catch up. We were supposed to be going home!” Of course Diego is scared, but can he not keep his voice down?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Shouting is just going to draw attention. They’ve never been good at being inconspicuous. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You think I don’t know that, Diego? I want to go home too - I lost everything, twice! - but look at him!” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright, alright calm down you two hotheads, all this stress is bad for the baby.” There’s a steel behind Klaus’s airy voice and Five wonders if his avoidant, terrified brother was really about to get angry - or at least something close to it. The thought makes him want to cry all of a sudden, and he can’t let himself do that.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>So Five hisses at Klaus instead - he’s a grown man, not a child - but he lets his brother move him. The abandoned house they’d found is definitely on its way to derelict and the couch probably has lice, but Five has sat and slept on worse.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Klaus probably has too.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Five, lets get you sitting okay? You don’t have to open your eyes just-“ That’s Vanya, all gentle hands and soft voice. She seems to know what she’s doing, Five wonders how much of that is natural and how much is her remembering her charge from the sixties - Harlan? </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll fix it-“ He tries to say. In his mouth his tongue feels like a lead weight, heavy and thick and dried out. Five isn’t sure how coherently it comes out. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Whatever. Sue him. He’s had two very bad weeks after forty-five years of hell, and he just wants to sleep for once. He’s so fucking tired of fixing everything. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Sure little man, but we can wait till the morning.” Five bares his teeth at Klaus, but somewhere in there is an undercurrent of bitter-sharp fondness. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“You should get some rest-“ Vanya is saying. There’s a rustle. Someone nudges him back onto the sofa. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>A blanket - where it came from, Five doesn’t know - is dropped on top of him. On top of his face, actually. Five sneezes as it sends dust across the room and then groans as that sends pain through his head. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Shit, sorry-“ Luther mumbles and Five tries to do something. Say ‘it’s fine’ or even give a thumbs up, but he can’t. His body doesn’t feel like his own right now. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“So we’re just giving up?”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“No, Diego, we’re just taking a break. Team Zero remember, we can’t do anything if everyone is dead on their feet-“ Luther has grown up a little. Grown more humble maybe, or just more jaded. Five would be proud of him if he had the mental capacity to think in a straight line at the moment. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Unfortunately, everything is a bit... wibbly wobbly at the moment.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Diego grunts. It’s a very Diego sound. If his head wasn’t leaking out of his ears like a split open coconut, he would laugh. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“If you want something to do, Gogo, you could go-go find us some food.” There’s an understanding in the statement - Diego is scared, he needs something to do. He’s always been restless energy and a need to prove himself. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine. Five you- you get some rest.” </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Well, he’s certainly on his way to doing just that. There are footsteps and rustling and the noises of a house that has people in it. Someone smooths a hand across his forehead and rearranges the blanket and it could be any one of his siblings and that makes his heart warm.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<hr/>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He opens his eyes for just a moment, and the world is calm and dark when he closes them again. Something inside of him is still leaking like an open wound, but Five has bandages near him now and hands that are ready to nurse him.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The world takes and takes and doesn’t give back, but that’s fine. Five is self motivated and a go-getter and fucking stubborn. If the world isn’t going to give back to him, he’ll just stand up and take what he wants from it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Reality - time, space, all that shit - it belongs to him. And Five belongs to his family - with his family. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“Sleep well.” Vanya says. A gentle kiss is laid on his forehead and for the first time in nearly fifty years Five thinks he will.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Please comment and Kudos if you like!! You can follow me on <a href="https://ashayathyla2.tumblr.com/">@ashayathyla2</a> or join my <a href="https://discord.gg/NCxhZY9">Discord</a> for TUA discussions!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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